“This hugely compelling book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of humanitarianism and philanthropy, international law, and refugee studies. Rather than arguing that humanitarian intervention was a nineteenth- or twentieth-century innovation, Arnold shows that its roots go back to the early eighteenth century.”—Renaud Morieux, author of The Society of Prisoners: Anglo-French Wars and Incarceration in the Eighteenth Century“Affairs of Humanity is impressively well researched and well argued. It charts the changing nature of British diplomatic interventions on behalf of oppressed groups in other European states and uncovers a shift from diplomatic efforts to aid beleaguered fellow Protestants to attempts of a more broadly humanitarian kind, designed to protect Jansenist Catholics in France and Jews in the territories of the Habsburgs. Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of humanitarianism.”—Stephen Conway, University College London“A precise, nuanced, original, and very convincing account of the origins of humanitarian diplomacy.”—Benjamin J. Kaplan, author of Cunegonde’s Kidnapping: A Story of Religious Conflict in the Age of Enlightenment“Written in lucid style and steeped in rigorous scholarship, Arnold makes a remarkable contribution to our knowledge of British state intervention on behalf of Jews, Jansenists and other Protestant Europeans. An essential book for anyone seeking to uncover the roots of humanitarian politics.”—Charles-Edouard Levillain, Université Paris Cité“This important new book skillfully weaves party politics, religion and international public opinion together with early enlightenment philosophy, shedding new light both on the origins of humanitarian diplomacy and on the idea of human rights itself.”—Annabel Brett, University of Cambridge
